Dunkirk poised for comeback
The new DFDS service which started between Irish Rosslare and Dunkirk (see ITJ Daily from 30 November 2020) is a partial answer for the French port Dunkerque's future.
In its traditional press conference on the past year in early January, Emmanuelle Vergier, president of the executive board of Dunkerque-Port, saw that in the course of 2020, the port of Dunkirk "was not spared, but held up well."
The overall throughput of 45.2 million t in 2020 was 14% less than the year before, yet "the impact of the financial crises was harder in 2010," said Vergier: "We are optimistic about 2021".
Since Stephane Raison took over the helm of Haropa Ports in November 2020, it was CCO Daniel Deschodt who presented this year's figures. Besides a setback relating to the current economic downturn, three fields stuck out in 2020: while the good French harvest led to a record of 3.3 million t of grain handled (+63%), the number of trucks transported across the channel rose to 607,000 units (+4%) and container throughput grew by 2% to a total of 463,000 teu.
In response to ITJ, Deschodt said that the port's ambition is to surpass 2020's volumes of 17 million t of trade with the British Isles if the "excellent exchange continues and the pandemic ceases throughout the year."
Besides the goals of recovery set for 2021, the port of Dunkirk also holds on to its aims of the strategic project 2020-2024. (cd)